


WALK SERENELY FORWARD

by Alemantele



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, Kevin and Lauren only in voice, Parade Day spoilers, Strex, drabble?, it's basically Carlos and his slow descent into madness I'M SORRY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 13:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1649576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alemantele/pseuds/Alemantele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he tried to step out of the doors, the wide desert stretched out before him.</p><p>And then he started to walk.</p><p>And walk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	WALK SERENELY FORWARD

It had been hours. Or, no, not hours--more like days. Or weeks. Maybe even months.

Carlos slowly shook his head, feeling the floppy locks of unkempt hair falling over his forehead. The desert sun was hot and the air was dry and Carlos wondered just how long he’d been here. From the way he did not seem to have moved very far beyond the outskirts of town to the way the sun had never gone down, even once, in the entire time he had been walking, very little time had passed.

But from the way that Carlos’s hair had grown visibly longer and the way his skin itched and burned and from the strange sinking feeling in his stomach, it had been much longer than that.

Much, much longer.

The house that does not really exist in the Desert Creeks housing development is either a portal to another world or as vast as the desert. Whatever it is, Carlos wonders if there will be someone on the other end of the door soon. He had wandered the empty rooms for a while before everything went dark.

When he tried to step out of the doors, the wide desert stretched out before him.

And then he started to walk.

And walk.

There is the sun and the sand and the tinny voice coming from the small handheld radio in his lab coat pocket. The voice is quiet, but all the same it was so loud. There is something… something about the voice that makes Carlos far too anxious.

There is a bright future ahead of us, says the voice and there is something so unfathomably wrong and not Cecil about it. It is so bright! Blindingly bright! says the voice and Carlos’s fingers twitch with the uncontrollable urge to throw the radio out into the sand wastes and be done with it--and the voice--forever. It is a future so filled with painful light that we have no choice but to close our eyes and walk serenely forward, says the voice, and Carlos takes his hand off the radio, squares his jaw, and walks serenely forward.

There is something beyond this something. Something on the horizon. Carlos remembers the advice Cecil gave him from what feels like so long ago, and walks serenely forward with Night Vale (with the Great Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area) to his left on the horizon, and hopes that something will change soon.

Carlos walks with smiling voices in his ears and wonders where Cecil is now.

It had been hoursdaysweeksmonths, and Carlos’s thoughts were scrambled and out of control and there is nothing with him but the sound of smiling voices and the hot desert sun beating down on his back. The rays of light reflect off the sand dunes and blind him and it is so _bright._

(There is, however, a faint inkling of a memory, hidden deep within his mind. There is no regularity to the broadcasting schedule of Night Vale Community radio and Carlos listens to the radio late at night--at first because he didn’t believe anything that was announced on it and then later because it is far easier to fall asleep with Cecil’s soothing voice in his ear--and the things Cecil says on air are often imprinted into his dreams.

 _The desert seems vast,_ Cecil says in his mind, _even endless. And yet scientists tell us that somewhere, there is snow._ )

 _Snow is falling somewhere_ , says Lauren Mallard, _Many things are falling, or will fall, or have fallen, but temporary triumph is still triumph._

There are many things that Carlos is certain about. Or, at least, he was certain a couple of daysmonthswhatevers ago. He was certain that Night Vale was something else altogether than the strange and malevolent town it was on the surface. Something pure. And innocent. He was certain that Night Vale was as forever as the sand dunes and mountains.

There are also many things that Carlos is uncertain about. He is a scientist--not a dendrologist or botanist and studying _science_ has always brought him a level of security in the world. He knows that there is always uncertainties and always failures and that past performance does not guarantee future success and--

And he always knew, deep down, that Night Vale was not forever. That sand dunes could blow away in the dust. That even mountains wore down. That mountains were perhaps not even real in the first place.

 _Many things are falling_ , said Lauren Mallard.

Carlos does not know if the sun is ever going to go down at this point. He does not know if he is ever going to get back to Night Vale or Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area or home anymore. He does not know he will end up in the same dimension as Dana with the mountain and the enormous masked army or even if mountains are real anymore.

He does not know where Cecil is and even if Cecil ever was real.

All he knows is this sand and this desert and this sun.

Kevin’s voice comes from the radio, soft almost, cheery almost. Carlos listens to it and he is almost calmed. Carlos listens to it and walks serenely forward.

(On some level, Carlos knew these words are nonsensical and meaningless. On some level, Carlos wondered what Night Vale is doing now and where Cecil is what happened to Tamika. On some level, Carlos is afraid--no, concerned.)

On another level, Carlos walks and walks and wonders if he will ever get where he is going. On another level, Kevin’s voice washes over him and he feels himself nodding along

Carlos worries about where his feet land in the now--if he is not careful the sand sucks at his feet. Carlos brushes his unkempt hair out of his face and tries to remembers what Cecil said about it, all those years ago.

Had it been a day? The sun has not set yet. The sun has not retreated from the sky yet. When will the sun fade and die away?  

Had it been a year? Carlos doesn’t remember where he is anymore. There is only the desert and the voice and Carlos’s warm ears blossoming open to hear whispered secrets echoing into the sand wastes.

He only has to walk, Carlos knows this. He only has to walk and he will soon get to where he is going and nothing matters except walking.

If he squints his eyes _just so_ under this blinding afternoon sun, he can almost pretend the desert was a field of snow.

Burdened by the weight of the sun, his feet slowly sinking into the sand, and thinking of a place--somewhere far away--where there is snow, Carlos walks.

**Author's Note:**

> Featuring Carlos slowly falling into madness. I'm sorry, I tried to make it happy but it felt too contrived to have him meet up with Dana or something like that. ^^; 
> 
> Somewhat of a companion to This Vast Desert, I suppose, but both are fairly character grounded anyways.


End file.
